Movie Review: Masquerades
http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk
Tribeca 09 screened two Arab features as part of its out of competition slate: Annemarie Jacir‘s Salt Of This Sea and Franco-Algerian director Lyès Salem’s Masquerades.
Salem is the newest member of a vibrant, talented new generation of Algerian filmmakers (all of whom are under 45) that includes Tariq Teguia (Inland/Gabbla), Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche (Adhen/Dernier Maquis), and Malek Bensmaïl (La Chine Est Encore Loin).
Masquerades is a completely engaging satire. It won numerous first place awards last year on the Arab Film Fest circuit – Best First Film in Carthage, Best Arabic Film in Cairo, and the Muhr Arabic Feature Best Film in still purse-rich Dubai (despite the weakening of the Gulf emirate’s real estate market), where the French-Algerian production also won that particular event’s first ever FIPRESCI prize.
Previously, Salem had also scooped up awards for his two other films, both shorts: the 2001 Golden Star in Marrakesh, for Jean Farès, and the 2005 César, for Cousines.
Set in Aurès, a Berber village in the mountains of East Algeria, Masquerades is one sly dog of a movie.
Initially, it is apparently nothing but a delicious – and harmless – wedding farce. Salem at first seems intent on nothing more than puncturing Algerian machismo posturing, and the cultural values of a society that overvalues all things European.
The film revolves around the deeply insecure figure of Mounir (Salem), a puffed up gardener, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Ali G, is perpetually dressed in tracksuit, and prefers to refer to his lowly occupation as that of a “horticulture engineer”.
Mounir works for the richest man in town (an unseen Colonel), is married, and has a beautiful narcoleptic sister Rym (Sarah Reguieg), who suffers from a tendency to pass out, suddenly, in the most inappropriate circumstances. Because of her condition, Mounir endures much cruel mocking by the villagers regarding Rym’s potential suitability as a wife.
Their incessant persiflage finally drives him over the edge. One night, he cannot take it any more, gets drunk, and grandly announces to the village her impending nuptials to a wealthy Frenchman, a certain William Van Cooten, whom he has seen briefly on TV. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to him, Rym is madly in love with Khliffen (Mohamed Bouchaïb), a neighbour, and Mounir’s best friend.
As word spreads around town concerning this impending phantom marriage, Mounir suddenly becomes an honoured man in the village. People who once shunned or made fun of his station in life begin to shower him with gifts. Rym goes along with Mounir’s slip of tongue in order to force Khliffen to propose, and the rest of the film revolves around Mounir’s attempts to resolve his dilemma with honour.
Masquerades is in part a hilarious variant on the long-standing French vaudeville tradition of quiproquo (Salem’s original screenplay was titled Les Trois Mensonges, or, The Three Lies), or the misunderstood word. Appreciating its deft sense of humour is only enhanced by knowing both Arabic and French, as there are some truly funny cross-language puns here; although by no means is this necessary to enjoying the film. It has affinities with Egyptian comedies of the Sixties, and recalls most directly veteran Algerian auteur Merzak Allouache’s groundbreaking Omar Gatlato (1976).
But there is more to Masquerades than breezy social satire. What Salem has succeeded in doing is create a metaphor for Algeria – a country that many young people want to abandon in search for work and a better life in Europe, a country that is controlled by an aging oligarchy, a country that was racked in the Nineties by a long-running civil war that resulted in the death of 160,000 people, a country where broadcast media is strictly controlled, a place where cinemas are few and censorship rampant, a country where movie directors have faced death threats by radical Islamists.
If Algeria has fallen asleep from time to time, since its independence in 1962 from France, when will it wake up for good?
Salem’s movie gently hints at one possible answer to that question.
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